


Extinction

by MrProphet



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-21
Updated: 2017-04-21
Packaged: 2018-10-22 04:22:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10689657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	Extinction

“Hello!” Hex stood and listened as his voice echoed back from the great vaulted chambers.

“Oi! Keep your voice down!” Ace hissed. “That’s the first rule of exploring the interior of a mysterious asteroid. You never know what might be lurking in the shadows. One wrong step and the ravening star groaties could be all over you?”

“Star groaties?” Hex sounded unconvinced. “What’s a star groaty?”

“If we knew that, we could take precautions,” Ace assured him. “It’s always the unknown that does for you.”

“Anyway, I thought the first rule of exploring the interior of a mysterious asteroid was to always leave a trail of string behind you?”

“It was. Then you managed to do something even more dense than usual.” Ace smacked Hex playfully across the back of the head. “Any sign of the Professor?” she asked.

“Not a whisper.”

“Professor!” Ace hollered, her shout reverberating over and over.

“What happened to keeping your voice down?”

“New first rule,” Ace decided. “Don’t lose the Professor.” She took a deep breath.

“It’s alright, Ace. There’s no need to shout.”

Ace leaped half out of her skin.

“God!” Hex gasped. “Don’t do that to us, Doctor. I may be new to this, but not leaping out of the shadows must be pretty high on the list of rules.”

The Doctor stepped out of a side passage. As he came into the light of Ace’s electric lantern they could see a peculiar melancholy written across the Time Lord’s face. For a moment he almost seemed to be showing his age; all nine-hundred and some years of it.

“Professor?” Ace was all concern. “What’s the matter? Do you know this place?”

“Not specifically, but I know what it is,” the Doctor replied. “I should have realised: An unshielded mass surviving so long in the Vortex; an endless labyrinth of passages.”

“It can’t really be endless though, can it? I mean, the asteroid didn’t seem that big and…”

“Oh my God,” Hex gasped. “All these tunnels. The asteroid; it’s…”

“Bigger on the inside,” Ace realised.

“Follow me,” the Doctor said. “And don’t worry about the string.”

He led the way into the heart of the asteroid where, in a high archway, he removed his hat before proceeding. The chamber beyond was stretched and scorched by fire, but the hexagonal console and the shattered central column were unmistakable.

“The pilot?” Ace asked.

“Long gone, swept away by the Vortex,” the Doctor replied in a dreamy tone.

“And the TARDIS?”

“Extinct. Every trace of her life extinguished and her interior dimensions exploded across the continuum.” He traced his hand across the broken console.

“What should we do?” Hex asked.

“Leave,” the Doctor replied. “And take her to the TARDIS graveyard, to rest in peace.”

“Whose TARDIS was this?” Ace wondered.

“Who can say?” the Doctor replied. “It has drifted in the Vortex so long; it could come from any point in the timeline.” He straightened up, seriously. “We should go, now. There is a danger we might learn something we would rather not know.” He turned and led the way out of the chamber. 

As Hex followed behind the Doctor and Ace, his foot caught something loose, which skittered across the floor. He bent and picked the object up. It was a long, narrow tube, scarred by fire, with a cracked, blue-glass bulb hanging by a wreck of fine wires and circuitry dangling from one end. “Doctor!” he called.

“Yes, Hex?” the Doctor replied.

Hex looked down at the thing, but something in him warned him to keep quiet. “Nothing,” he replied, and let the sonic screwdriver fall.


End file.
